View Larger Image Stuart Cobb, a myeloma survivor who volunteers with the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and serves on its board of advisors, picks up a sweet thank-you from Julia Hamra of the Cancer Institute's Volunteer Services and Auxiliary department during a recent appreciation drive-thru event for the institute's nearly 70 volunteers.
Stuart Cobb, a myeloma survivor who volunteers with the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and serves on its board of advisors, picks up a sweet treat from Julia Hamra of the Cancer Institute's Volunteer Services and Auxiliary department. The recent drive-thru event was held to thank the institute's nearly 70 volunteers for their dedication. Image by Linda Haymes

UAMS Cancer Institute’s Volunteers, Paused by the Pandemic, Ready to Return

By Linda Haymes

| (UAMS) The UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s nearly 70 volunteers may have been out of sight for more than a year thanks to COVID-19, but they have remained close at heart to the Cancer Institute’s staff.

For employees of Cancer Institute’s Volunteer Services and Auxiliary department, time and distance has not diminished their appreciation for the volunteers who assist patients, help around the Cancer Institute or serve on its auxiliary board. Six employees recently welcomed about 40 volunteers as they rolled through a drive-thru appreciation celebration and received pizza slice-shaped cookies decorated with pastel candies and white icing.

Sandy Henry, volunteer coordinator; Janie Lowe, director of Volunteer Services and Auxiliary; and Susan Jones, assistant director of Volunteer Services were among those greeting the arriving volunteers.

Sandy Henry, volunteer coordinator; Janie Lowe, director of Volunteer Services and Auxiliary; and Susan Jones, assistant director of Volunteer Services were among those greeting the arriving volunteers.

 

“We appreciate all the time and effort our volunteers gave in the past and continued to give through the pandemic,” said Janie Lowe, director of Volunteer Services and Auxiliary at the Cancer Institute. “These last 13 months, they kept our patients in their hearts and continued to volunteer by making and donating masks, hats and chemo bags and providing snacks for clinical staff.”

The Cancer Institute’s regular volunteers include the Sit and Knit group whose 14 members knit caps for patients. Other volunteers include Most Vital Pals (MVPs) who help new Myeloma Center patients navigate around UAMS on their first day. Way-finders help patients find a clinic or another building while others volunteer in the gift shop, play the piano in the lobby or volunteer in the patient support pavilion or in the waiting rooms. Other volunteers include those who serve on the auxiliary board, work with the annual Partners Card and Miracle Stars fundraisers or during special events or screenings.

“I’m so ready to come back,” said volunteer Henry Noor, who distributes snacks to patients and their family members, as he drove through the event.

"I'm so ready to come back," volunteer Henry Noor told Susan Jones, assistant director of volunteer services and auxiliary as the chatted during the drive-thru. Noor, who volunteers distributing snacks to patients and their family members, is usually the giving the treats instead of receiving them.

“I’m so ready to come back,” volunteer Henry Noor told Susan Jones, assistant director of volunteer services and auxiliary. He volunteers distributing snacks to patients and their family members.

Others attending included Stuart Cobb, a myeloma survivor who serves on the Cancer Institute’s board of advisors; Lou Ellen Treadway, an MVP and a past president of the auxiliary who has been volunteering since the Cancer Institute opened in 1989; and Sissy Clinton, who volunteers with the Sit and Knit group.

“Most of our volunteers plan to come back at some point,” Lowe said, noting that six of them have already returned to campus with six more coming back in May and more expected in June.

This marks the second time since the arrival of COVID-19 that employees of the Cancer Institute’s Volunteer Services, Auxiliary and the gift shop have held a socially distanced drive-thru event to thank their volunteers. Last December, about 35 volunteers attended a winter event where they received a large iced sugar cookie, hot cocoa mix and a star-shaped ornament.